Healthy recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner

First, after eating, the energy is stable throughout the day, and there is no discomfort such as premature hunger, sleepiness, acid reflux, and flatulence.； Second, there will be no nutrient deficiencies or abnormal weight fluctuations in the long term. Any talk of "optimal recipes" that are divorced from personal physique and living habits is untenable. Essentially, as long as the ratio of macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) throughout the day matches your metabolic level and living status, and the ingredients are preferably low-processed natural ingredients, it will be a healthy recipe that is suitable for you.

When many friends around me were new to healthy eating, they always liked to copy the ready-made recipes from Internet celebrity bloggers. They drank iced black coffee with boiled spinach on an empty stomach in the morning, brown rice and fried chicken breast at noon until their cheeks hurt. In the evening, they just ate a cucumber. After not persisting for three days, they broke out with a bucket of fried chicken and scolded themselves for their poor willpower. It's really not your problem, but that recipe is not designed for ordinary people who work nine to five and squeeze the subway to catch up on plans.

Take breakfast as an example. The "high-protein and low-carbohydrate" formula recommended by the fitness and muscle-building circle, such as 3 egg whites plus 100g of instant oats with sugar-free soy milk, is really friendly to people who have a fixed 2 hours of strength training in the morning. The blood sugar rises slowly and makes you full, and you will not suffer from hypoglycemia and fatigue during training. However, if you are prone to hypoglycemia just after waking up in the morning, your eyes will occasionally go dark when taking the subway, and you insist on eating this way, you will most likely be so dizzy that you can't even find the printer when you arrive at the company. When I had gastroesophageal reflux two years ago, I followed the trend and ate overnight oats, iced with a spoonful of chia seeds. After eating it, my stomach was full of pantothenic acid and burning all morning. Later, I switched to hot millet porridge with a hard-boiled egg and a small plate of cold spinach. It was much more comfortable, and I didn't feel hungry or shaking at noon. Oh, by the way, if you are really in a hurry in the morning, it is perfectly fine to buy vegetable buns on the roadside and add a cup of hot soy milk. You don’t have to worry about whether it is organic or not, and whether it contains sugar. It is better than being hungry until ten o’clock in the morning and eating high-sugar biscuits secretly.

There is no need to demand perfection in the lunch meal. After all, most people eat from the company cafeteria or order takeout. There is no need to bring their own boxes of brown rice and chicken breast, which may seem out of place with their colleagues. In the summer, it is easy to breed bacteria after a long morning with rice. People in the sugar control circle always say that you should avoid white rice and white noodles at noon. This statement is indeed based on the fact that refined carbohydrates have a high glycemic index and large insulin fluctuations. It is easy to feel sleepy at two or three o'clock in the afternoon. However, if you have to run field work, move goods, or have a three-hour brainstorming meeting in the afternoon, eating some white rice will be better than eating all grains to stave off hunger. If you are really hungry and your stomach growls in a quiet conference room, it will be more embarrassing. When I order takeout, I usually choose a home-cooked set meal with meat and vegetables. When I get it, drain the excess oil on the rice. If I order a rice bowl, I eat two-thirds of the rice and eat two more bites of vegetables and lean meat. It is much better than trying to avoid carbohydrates and secretly order full-sugar milk tea and potato chips in the afternoon. The latter has two or three times more calories.

As for dinner, it is the most controversial. The traditional health-preserving group says, "Eat a small meal for dinner, and it is best not to eat after lunch." The fitness group says, "The metabolism is slow in the evening and you need to eat high protein to prevent muscle loss." In fact, both sides are right, but they are applicable to completely different groups of people. If you lie down at seven or eight o'clock in the evening to catch up on dramas and go to bed around ten o'clock, then don't eat too much. A bowl of mushroom and vegetable soup plus a small portion of steamed fish is enough. If you eat too much, it will be easy to accumulate food and keep you tossing and turning. ； But if you are a new media person or designer and often have to work overtime until 11 or 12 o'clock, then you must not only eat vegetables for dinner. I have a friend who works in operations who ate only one corn at night in order to lose weight. When he rushed to the Double 11 plan, he had a gastric perforation and went directly to the hospital at 12 o'clock. Later, he would add a small portion of brown rice or two skinless chicken drumsticks to his dinner, so that he would not feel empty and uncomfortable after getting off work. There are also those who run or do aerobics at night. After exercising, they should replenish some carbohydrates and protein. Just half a banana and a cup of warm milk. Don't listen to the nonsense that "eating after exercise is a waste of exercise". Being hungry for a long time will make it easier to lose muscle. It will be harder to lose weight when the basal metabolism is lowered.

In fact, I have been doing public nutrition consulting for almost four years, and I have seen too many people struggle with the perfection of the diet. One day they follow the trend of eating the Mediterranean diet, and the next day they follow the trend of trying ketosis, which in turn messes up their gastrointestinal disorders. Healthy eating is really not that complicated. You don’t need to calculate calories accurately per gram of weight. You just need to get the ratio of “one punch of staple food, two punches of vegetables, and one punch of protein”. It’s okay to have a hot pot and barbecue occasionally. Long-term eating habits are much more important than perfect meals. Last time, an aunt in her sixties came for consultation and said that she drank soy milk with vegetable buns in the morning, tomato and egg noodles at noon, and multigrain porridge with pickles at night. Is this unhealthy? I asked her that her blood pressure and blood lipids were normal, and she didn’t feel tired even after dancing for two hours a day. Isn’t this the most suitable healthy diet for her? It is much more reliable than those so-called "high-end customized recipes" that spend a lot of money to buy imported organic ingredients and cause acid reflux and bloating after eating them.

To put it bluntly, recipes are to serve people, not to restrain them. If you are comfortable eating and in good physical condition, it is the best healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes.